Best Buy, one of the largest resellers authorized to sell Apple's Mac family of products, is listing this weekend five new stock keeping units for Mac notebooks at price points ranging from $1,199 to $2,499.

The SKUs turned up (via Engadget) in the specialty electronics reseller's online Laptop Configuration tool, where they are listed as "New SKU" with availability of "Coming Soon."

Although Best Buy's inventory systems have been a less-than-precise indicator of Apple's actual plans in the past, this weekend's listings do provide specific pricing information that has yet to turn up elsewhere.

Specifically, the retailer's configuration tool specifies that the forthcoming Apple notebooks will be priced at $1,199, $1,499, $1,799, $2,199 and $2,499. Those price points could coincide nicely with previous reports that peg the new MacBook Pros to arrive in five retail configurations as opposed to the existing six.

Based on those reports and the new price points, it appears most likely that Apple will continue to offer two configurations of the 13-inch MacBooks ($1,199 and $1,499), a single 17-inch configuration ($2,499, up from $2,299), and consolidate the three current 15-inch configurations ($1,799, $1,999, and $2,199) into two configurations ($1,799 and $2,199), shedding the $1,999 15-inch configuration.

The chart below compares Apple's existing MacBook Pro lineup with the potential future lineup, which is based off reports over the last several days that have identified five new Mac part numbers making the rounds in international retail channels at the unconfirmed prices listed by Best Buy in the U.S.

For more on Apple's impending update to its MacBook Pro family, please see AppleInsider's MacBook Pro information archive. Meanwhile, captures of the potential new MacBook Pro SKUs and price points listed by Best Buy can be seen in their entirety, below.

Only thing I can come up with is that they're adding something significant and expensive enough to require the jump in prices in the higher end models. Could be material (Carbon Fiber, LiquidMetal, etc) or maybe quad-core chips, since they only have dual-core versions right now. Not sure what that means for the lower-end models though, if they're getting the same upgrade or not.

Well, if this is true I guess we'll have to wait another generation for price drops... They cannot sell the same machines with speed bumps for these prices. Competition certainly is starting to catch up with Apple in terms of build quality.

So I hope these new machines feature a complete redesign with a high OMG, do want!!!-factor, like the MacBook Air has.

Well, if this is true I guess we'll have to wait another generation for price drops... They cannot sell the same machines with speed bumps for these prices. Competition certainly is starting to catch up with Apple in terms of build quality.

So I hope these new machines feature a complete redesign with a high OMG, do want!!!-factor, like the MacBook Air has.

I guess that's why Dell dropped their Adamo line?

Apple sells more of these things each quarter. They always have a "high OMG, do want!!" factor. I'm pretty sure Apple knows what needs to be done in order to maintain the Mac's position in the market.

Apple sells more of these things each quarter. They always have a "high OMG, do want!!" factor. I'm pretty sure Apple knows what needs to be done in order to maintain the Mac's position in the market.

You're right, but yesterday I saw my mate's brand new $650 core i5 HP laptop. It had a pretty cool design and really very durable plastic body. I then realized the current MBP-design is getting pretty long in the tooth and boring, but that's very personal of course.

What I'm saying is: usually I see the extra value in buying Apple products over the generic window boxes. The MBA looks very sexy, and I would take an iMac over any Windows all in one out there, but the "normal" MacBooks and MBP's just don't do it for me anymore.

You're right, but yesterday I saw my mate's brand new $650 core i5 HP laptop. It had a pretty cool design and really very durable plastic body. I then realized the current MBP-design is getting pretty long in the tooth and boring, but that's very personal of course.

What I'm saying is: usually I see the extra value in buying Apple products over the generic window boxes. The MBA looks very sexy, and I would take an iMac over any Windows all in one out there, but the "normal" MacBooks and MBP's just don't do it for me anymore.

So, I really hope Apple will amaze me the coming week

There is a lot more to an item than the base specs, like display size and CPU type. For instance, Apple is still the leader across the board for display quality. Size, weight and durability of a notebook for given type. These are things that just arent happening on a $650 HP. Its just not possible.

Only thing I can come up with is that they're adding something significant and expensive enough to require the jump in prices in the higher end models. Could be material (Carbon Fiber, LiquidMetal, etc) or maybe quad-core chips, since they only have dual-core versions right now. Not sure what that means for the lower-end models though, if they're getting the same upgrade or not.

I don't think any of that would account for the price. It's more likely SSD substitution of HDD's in those cases.

Well, if this is true I guess we'll have to wait another generation for price drops... They cannot sell the same machines with speed bumps for these prices. Competition certainly is starting to catch up with Apple in terms of build quality....

You're right, but yesterday I saw my mate's brand new $650 core i5 HP laptop. It had a pretty cool design and really very durable plastic body. I then realized the current MBP-design is getting pretty long in the tooth and boring, but that's very personal of course.

What I'm saying is: usually I see the extra value in buying Apple products over the generic window boxes. The MBA looks very sexy, and I would take an iMac over any Windows all in one out there, but the "normal" MacBooks and MBP's just don't do it for me anymore.

So, I really hope Apple will amaze me the coming week

A cheap laptop is still a cheap laptop. I'm willing to bet it doesn't last that long, or perform as well as you might think.

It will be Sandy Bridge, a more Air-like case, SSDs and a new light-peak port. I don't know why they'd have a press event at all unless it's to explain Light Peak to the press, or explain why they are dropping optical drives on some/all models. Otherwise a faster CPU and nicer case just speaks for itself.

As much as I'd like to have a unibody, my next laptop will be an asus hackintosh for the same price range. But with USB3, bluray, quad cores, etc. (or similar, that I could actually get os x on)

What USB 3.0 accessories do you have? For what backup purpose do you require an internal Blu-ray drive? What usage requirement do you have that makes you need a quad-core CPU at the expense of long battery life, something typically prefered by notebook users.

I'm sure you have your reasons but your post does sound like you are going for the *best* marketing buzzwords for a component type.

BestBuy.com is also listing two new apple computers in their Apple Laptop category (way down at the bottom.) This also coincides with now 5 models not available for shipping (which I believe is up from a couple of days ago.)

The details of the two new Apple computers are not listed, but based on the prices it looks like its the listing for the two 13" models ($1199 and $1499).

I'm glad I've been following this site for a while now and holding off on buying a new MBP.

I'm sure they've done that on Friday in the past. It seems a bit late to issue them the day before but I guess it won't matter. All the European stores went down Friday night I think it was so it seems fairly likely the update is coming.

What USB 3.0 accessories do you have? For what backup purpose do you require an internal Blu-ray drive? What usage requirement do you have that makes you need a quad-core CPU at the expense of long battery life, something typically prefered by notebook users.

I bought a Mac Book and use it mostly as a desktop. It has not needed to leave my home since I bought it. Why do that? At the time I wanted a Mac Mini but Apple was taking way too long to bring out the newest models. So instead of buying a maxed out Mini I bought a refurbished Mac Book 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo for only $150 more than a Mini.

I got a keyboard, track pad, screen, and camera for just $150. The processor was faster than the best of the Minis too.

In my new job I'll be needing the portability for doing presentations. I'm glad I got the Mac Book instead of the Mini.

Some people want to have great features for their own reasons. Maybe that is why many people want Blu-Ray capability.

Processor speeds are just about fast enough for me these days. When the Core 2 Duo level chips are available in netbooks and they have USB 3, esata, or lightpeak connectors That will be all I'll ever need to do the things I do today.

I don't think any of that would account for the price. It's more likely SSD substitution of HDD's in those cases.

Ok, but would that mean that only the higher-end models are getting SSD's, or are the smaller models merely gaining small-sized SSD's? I can't see myself getting a laptop with anything smaller than 256GB, and with most of the better model SSD's reserving as much as 70GB as backup to lengthen the life, even that seems tight. It would explain, however, the reason for the dropping of the $1999 15' Pro. The low 15 would have a 256GB and the higher a 512GB: the price difference requiring the large jump in price. Ditto for the 17 inch.

What USB 3.0 accessories do you have? For what backup purpose do you require an internal Blu-ray drive? What usage requirement do you have that makes you need a quad-core CPU at the expense of long battery life, something typically prefered by notebook users.

I'm sure you have your reasons but your post does sound like you are going for the *best* marketing buzzwords for a component type.

I'm about to purchase a 2tb ext hard drive with usb3 support. Way faster. Very common now. Currently I use esata through express card on my mbp. Good but very short, rigid cable limit. I need a new machine to suit me for several years. I must, must, must have OSX, though.

I'd like to be able to pop in any one of my bluray movies for a watch thank you. And, um, I'd like to back up my blurays, so I want to be able to rip them.

95% of the time I'm home with my lappy plugged in, or at my fav cafe across the street plugged in at my face corner table with a perfect view of the girls coming and going from the yoga studio thank you.

I do fcp, light room, cs5 etc... More apps are adding multicore support. I need lots of lots but love doing so in a cafe for a change of scenery. I have my iPad for mobility and battery and currently bring it out with my 4 year old mbp.

I'm about to purchase a 2tb ext hard drive with usb3 support. Way faster. Very common now. Currently I use esata through express card on my mbp. Good but very short, rigid cable limit. I need a new machine to suit me for several years. I must, must, must have OSX, though.

I'd like to be able to pop in any one of my blurry movies for a watch thank you. And, um, I'd like to back up my blurays, so I want to be able to rip them.

95% of the time I'm home with my lappy plugged in, or at my fav cafe across the street plugged in at my face corner table with a perfect view of the girls coming and going from the yoga studio thank you.

I do fcp, light room, cs5 etc... More apps are adding multicore support. I need lots of lots but love doing so in a cafe for a change of scenery. I have my iPad for mobility and battery and currently bring it out with my 4 year old mbp.

How are real resources merely marketing?

How are you going to play a Blu-ray movie in a machine running Mac OS X? I only thought Windows Vista/7 had the necessary software to play files with AACS.

How are you going to play a Blu-ray movie in a machine running Mac OS X? I only thought Windows Vista/7 had the necessary software to play files with AACS.

I have an external usb blue ray drive on my imac. Only used it to rip BR so far but will try to play a movie to see
... its mapping the disk to my desktop, I can open it to see the files but cant play it indeed, would need to download a separate BR player for macs. I can read it with the same app I used to rip, which is MakeMKV

On the other hand, I also have Win7 via bootcamp on my iMac and I could boot to win7 to play a BR too. I always buy an oem windows for my macs in case I need it (games, special software not available on a mac, ...)

There is a lot more to an item than the base specs, like display size and CPU type. For instance, Apple is still the leader across the board for display quality. Size, weight and durability of a notebook for given type. These are things that just aren’t happening on a $650 HP. It’s just not possible.

Pray you never have to deal with HP support--that is, if you can find an actual human being. That's another reason to stick with Apple.

I have an external usb blue ray drive on my imac. Only used it to rip BR so far but will try to play a movie to see
... its mapping the disk to my desktop, I can open it to see the files but cant play it indeed, would need to download a separate BR player for macs. I can read it with the same app I used to rip, which is MakeMKV

Thats the rub. There isnt any. You can go through ripping them and removing the DRM, but if you do that then why not just use a digital copy instead of lugging around discs and using a large, battery draining drive that is prone to break and is usually pretty loud in notebooks unless you have headphones on.

Ok, but would that mean that only the higher-end models are getting SSD's, or are the smaller models merely gaining small-sized SSD's? I can't see myself getting a laptop with anything smaller than 256GB, and with most of the better model SSD's reserving as much as 70GB as backup to lengthen the life, even that seems tight. It would explain, however, the reason for the dropping of the $1999 15' Pro. The low 15 would have a 256GB and the higher a 512GB: the price difference requiring the large jump in price. Ditto for the 17 inch.

I think you're right about the price change. It seems like they are making a $1999 spec model with $200 extra to push it to a 512GB SSD and then dropping the $1999 price point, likewise the 17" model.

It'll be interesting to see what they put in the 13" though. They got a 256GB SSD in the $1599 Air so it's questionable whether they can get 256GB in the 13" MBP models. I don't think they'd go less than 160GB.

Also, the 13" MBP's prices come in at $100 less than the Air. If they redesign the MBP, I think the 13" Air is gone. Why spend $100 more to get half the performance and a measly 0.5-1lbs weight saving?

That’s the rub. There isn’t any. You can go through ripping them and removing the DRM, but if you do that then why not just use a digital copy instead of lugging around discs and using a large, battery draining drive that is prone to break and is usually pretty loud in notebooks unless you have headphones on.

The thing is I rip them, convert them to .m4v files preserving multiple audio tracks, then get information (covert, description, actors) using Identify.
Then the only thing I need to do is drag it into iTunes and its available to my AppleTV, iphone and Ipad.
The problem with digital copies is DRM which limit too much what I can do with the files. On top of it BR and dvd's are often cheaper and are good physical backups.
The drive is for my desktop mac, I would not carry that thing with a laptop. It looks neat has it is white and fits with the iMac design.

Given the trend of slowly dropping prices on higher-end MBPs, this pricing scheme makes little sense. Unless they've got some significant and expensive change that needs to be offset.

There doesn't need to be as many in-betweens and arbitrary spec upgrades in the matrix.

When you bump up the i5 to the i7 on the 17" (which, if you need a 17" laptop, you need an i7) the price is the same anyway. Why have a choice that most (if any) will not actually need or benefit from? Just to say that the starting price is lower?

Also, the entry level 15" MacBook Pro doesn't need to be there. You won't want to take any of these machines without a 7200 rpm drive anyway, and after bumping the drive up on the 2.4 i5, the savings between it and the 2.53 are negligible. Then of course there's the Hi-Res upgrade. Again, anyone buying one of these laptops should have this option selected, period. The product lineup should be simple, focused and configuration options should only apply when truly discretionary options such as solid state or Antiglare are being considered.

Well, if this is true I guess we'll have to wait another generation for price drops... They cannot sell the same machines with speed bumps for these prices. Competition certainly is starting to catch up with Apple in terms of build quality.

So I hope these new machines feature a complete redesign with a high OMG, do want!!!-factor, like the MacBook Air has.

You may have realized this but Apple doesn't cater to the bottom end of the market. If you can't afford the products don't buy them. There isn't actually competition that comes close to the fit and finish of unibody construction though. That's ludicrous and everyone here knows it.

Pricing has remained relatively uniform for years. I think the product line and pricing matrix should be as simple as possible. You don't need an in-between 15" model that should actually be the introductory model and you don't need a 17" that needs a $200 upgrade to be what it is supposed to be. I'd much rather have the computer be what it should be without upgrading it, which actually *raises* the price higher than just starting it out where it ought to. But expecting Apple to slash prices and start putting out plastic junk boxes is looney.

You're right, but yesterday I saw my mate's brand new $650 core i5 HP laptop. It had a pretty cool design and really very durable plastic body. I then realized the current MBP-design is getting pretty long in the tooth and boring, but that's very personal of course.

What I'm saying is: usually I see the extra value in buying Apple products over the generic window boxes. The MBA looks very sexy, and I would take an iMac over any Windows all in one out there, but the "normal" MacBooks and MBP's just don't do it for me anymore.

There is a lot more to an item than the base specs, like display size and CPU type. For instance, Apple is still the leader across the board for display quality. Size, weight and durability of a notebook for given type. These are things that just aren’t happening on a $650 HP. It’s just not possible.

Common sense and actual product knowledge aren't particularly well spread, even on "insider" forums. Display quality is a good point. You'll notice the resolution and color gamut as well as general performance on a lot of these competing PC laptop displays is quite poor, but consumers don't understand that generally.

What USB 3.0 accessories do you have? For what backup purpose do you require an internal Blu-ray drive? What usage requirement do you have that makes you need a quad-core CPU at the expense of long battery life, something typically prefered by notebook users.

I'm sure you have your reasons but your post does sound like you are going for the *best* marketing buzzwords for a component type.

stems from the need of a particular user to "measurebate"; that is to dwell on specs, particularly ones pertaining to "performance" when purchasing a product so as to feel better about themselves instead of buying based on usage. These users are typically quite cheap as well.

stems from the need of a particular user to "measurebate"; that is to dwell on specs, particularly ones pertaining to "performance" when purchasing a product so as to feel better about themselves instead of buying based on usage. These users are typically quite cheap as well.

Have you read my answer to his question? Is a $1700 laptop cheap? And needing the power is integral to "usage".

I keep reading in these forums people bitching about Apple not keeping up with power, not adding this or that - for instance, coming out with MBP models that are still C2D instead of i3 or i5, especially considering these are pricey machines, then when I say how I will go about getting those specs people jump on me for it. People just get upset when it's demonstrated Apple are giving them less specs for the money.

For some, the case is more important than computing power or RAM, etc, for others, like myself who could use all the power I get, not because I'm going to youporn but because I'm running several heavy apps at a time like from Creative Suite 5, and FCP. But I'm just masturbating over specs? Really? Have you edited video with real time rendering enabled????? Try it. I currently do it on a 2.16Mhz C2D Oct 2006 MBP and it barely works so excuse me for wanting/needing more power.

4 years and 4 months later the same priced MBP went from 2.16 Mhz to 2.53 Mhz both 2 cores. A better chipset and 4GB RAM. Better, but not 4 years better.

I mean really, this Asus has DOUBLE the power. All the same suppliers internally. What the heck?

As far as Bluray and other things, I'll be using Bootcamp as I do now. (Not sure if that's possible with hackintosh, but watching a moving is not the main point - but I do want to rip them for my AppleTv2 with XBMC. )

Common sense and actual product knowledge aren't particularly well spread, even on "insider" forums. Display quality is a good point. You'll notice the resolution and color gamut as well as general performance on a lot of these competing PC laptop displays is quite poor, but consumers don't understand that generally.

Be specific. What MacBook display is better than what competitors display? If you don't have an example in mind then you're talking out your butt.

I do recall Apple getting sued for advertising "millions of colors" when it was really in the thousands, and it was pumped up using dithering. Nice, but not the same thing. It'll be a few months before I get anything, so don't know exactly what model yet, but this is to give an example of what's possible for under 2K.